The present disclosure relates generally to power management for an electronic device during media playback and, more particularly, to power management depending on a format of the media and a fullness of an output buffer.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present techniques, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Many electronic devices are capable of playing back digital media, such as digital audio or video, of a variety of different media formats. Popular media formats include AAC, ALAC, AAC-HE, MP3, among others, which may offer compression of data with minimal loss of information. To play back media encoded under such formats, an electronic device first may decode the media into a playable form before storing the decoded data in a media output buffer. The decoded media may be played out to a user as the decoded media data is gradually read out of the output buffer. Although the decoded media data may fill the media output buffer at a relatively variable rate, the decoded media data may be played back from the media output buffer at a relatively constant rate.
To improve power efficiency and/or battery life of an electronic device while media is being played back, a variety of techniques for power management have been developed. For example, since operating the electronic device at a lower clock speed may reduce power consumption but slow the process of filling the media output buffer, some techniques may involve setting the clock speed to a low clock speed when the media output buffer exceeds a threshold, and setting the clock speed to a high clock speed when the media output buffer falls below the threshold. Since certain media formats may require more or fewer processing resources, to prevent unintentional underruns of the media output buffer, the above technique only may apply when media of certain relatively non-resource-intense media formats are being played back. When relatively resource-intense media formats are played back, only the maximum clock speed may be applied. While applying the maximum clock speed may prevent media output buffer underruns, doing so also may consume additional resources.